Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

JAPANESE EMPLOYED IN OTHER INDUSTRIES.

As has already been indicated, few Japanese have been employed in other industries. They have been employed by electric railway companies operating in and near Los Angeles, by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company as laborers in its iron and steel plant at Pueblo, in two packing houses at Omaha, Nebr.," in three or more salt refineries about the bay of San Francisco, and in a few quarries. In none of these instances, however, have the conditions of their employment been dissimilar to those indicated in connection with the other industries. They have been paid comparatively low wages in almost all of these instances. An additional reason assigned for their employment in salt refineries is that it has been difficult to retain good white laborers because of the bad conditions under which the work must be done. In one instance, however, the Japanese were discharged on the ground that they were unsatisfactory laborers, and their places were filled by white laborers at a higher wage.

SUMMARY.

Any general statement concerning the employment of Japanese is apt to prove misleading because the circumstances have differed from industry to industry and from one establishment to another. The following general statements may be made, however, as a result of the investigation of the several industries in which the members of this race are employed:

(1) In a number of instances the first employment of the members of this race has been to break strikes. This is true of coal mining in southern Colorado and Utah, where they were first employed in 1903-4, of meat packing in Omaha, of smelting in Utah, where they replaced Greeks striking for higher wages in 1907, and of the shops of one railway company. In the great majority of instances, however, they have been introduced to replace Chinese or when employers were experiencing difficulty in finding an adequate number of steady white men to work as common laborers and as helpers at the rate of wages which had obtained. Seldom have other classes been discharged in large numbers to make room for the Japanese; on the contrary, Japanese, have usually been employed to fill places vacated by others because of the more remunerative or agreeable employment to be found elsewhere.

(2) A premium has been placed upon the substitution of Japanese rather than of other immigrant races by the fact that they were made easily available by the Japanese contractors, and that because of the position of the contractors their employment involved the least inconvenience to the employers. These contractors have had a

a The employment of Japanese in packing houses in Omaha dates from 1904, when they were introduced as strike breakers. Some 200 were then brought from the West, but most of these have drifted away, and those who have come more recently have not been quite sufficiently numerous to maintain the number at that point. They are paid the same wage-17 to 20 cents per hour-as other employees engaged in the same kind of work. They are entirely satisfactory for the lighter kinds of work, and especially that ordinarily done by

women.

supply of labor available; other cheap laborers must be "recruited " largely through employment agents in the cities of the Middle West, which involves competition with the industries more conveniently reached from these supply centers. This organization of the Japanese laborers must be emphasized above all other things in explaining the demand for them.

(3) Moreover, the Japanese have usually worked for a lower wage than the members of any other race save the Chinese and the Mexican. In the salmon canneries the Chinese have been paid higher wages than the Japanese engaged in the same occupations. In the lumber industry all races, including the East Indian, have been paid higher wages than the Japanese doing the same kind of work. As section hands and laborers in railway shops they have been paid as much as or more than the Chinese, and more than the Mexicans, but as a rule less than the white men of many races. In coal mining they have been employed chiefly as miners and loaders and have worked at the common piece rate, but in Wyoming, where they have been employed as "company men," they were paid less per day than the European immigrants employed in large numbers, until their acceptance as members of the United Mine Workers in 1907 gave them the benefit of the standard rate established by bargaining between the union and the operators. As construction laborers they have usually, though not invariably, been paid less than the other races employed except the East Indian and the Mexican. Competition between the races engaged in unskilled work appears generally to have hinged upon the rate of wages paid rather than the efficiency of the races employed.

(4) It must be added, however, that the difference between the wages paid to Japanese and those paid to the members of the various white races engaged in the same occupations tended to diminish, and in some instances disappeared, while the number of immigrants arriving in the country was largest. This is accounted for partly by the skillful bargaining of the few large contractors who have supplied the great majority of the laborers for work in canneries, on the railroads, in the lumber mills, and for other industrial enterprises, partly by the fact that there was an increasing demand for their labor in other industries, which, one after the other, had been opened to them.

(5) Though regarded as less desirable than the Chinese and the Mexicans, roadmasters and section foremen usually prefer Japanese to the Italians, Greeks, and Slavs as section hands. In the railway shops they are usually given higher rank than the Mexicans and Greeks, and sometimes the Italians as well. They are versatile, adaptable, and ambitious, and are regarded as good laborers and helpers. In salmon canning, on the other hand, they are universally regarded as much less desirable than the Chinese, and are inferior to the Filipinos who have recently engaged in the industry in Alaska. In the lumber and other industries there is greater difference of opinion. On the whole, however, the Japanese have been regarded as satisfactory laborers at the wage paid. In salt refineries and in some other places where the labor conditions are hard, they find favor because they are willing to accept such conditions.

(6) In spite of these considerations, however, in most branches of industry the Japanese have found it difficult to make much advance. In the lumber industry, for example, the great majority of employers have never employed them at all. In some instances this is explained by the race antipathy of the employer, more frequently by that of the white employees or that of the community in general. The same situation is found in most industries in which the Japanese have been employed in so far as large groups of men are brought together at one place and the work is of such a character that the members of different races must work in close association. While exceptions are found in a few other industries, it is mainly in the salmon canneries and in railway work that a hostile public opinion has had little effect upon the employment of Japanese.

(7) Chiefly because of the attitude of other laborers and the fact that many of the Japanese do not understand English and must be set at work in groups with an interpreter, the Japanese have always been engaged chiefly in unskilled work. In the lumber industry a few have advanced to semiskilled positions, but they have not made the progress the members of the same race have in British Columbia, where skilled white men have been more scarce.

In fact, in Washington and Oregon few Japanese have been employed except in the "yards." Nor have they found a place in catching fish for the canneries as they did in British Columbia, while in the canneries they are, as a rule, employed to do the unskilled work during the busiest season, while the Chinese are employed more regularly and fill the positions requiring skill. They likewise occupy the lowest positions in the fruit and vegetable canneries and are engaged chiefly in preparing fruit and vegetables for canning. In the coal mines, with the exception of Wyoming, they are employed as miners and loaders--occupations in which the great majority of the new immigrants are employed, because the work is less regular and more disagreeable than in the other occupations. Likewise, in the three smelters where they are employed they share the commonest labor with Greeks and other recent immigrants from south and east European countries. Perhaps the Japanese have made greater progress in railway shops than in any other nonagricultural employment. Though most of those employed in shops are unskilled laborers, they have risen somewhat in the scale of occupations, and in several instances are found occupying positions which, with their versatility and capacity, might serve them as stepping stones to skilled work.

These, in brief, are the more general facts relating to the employment of Japanese in these nonagricultural industries. The Japanese, who found their first employment in the canneries and as section hands and general-construction laborers, have shown a strong tendency to leave such employment for agricultural work or to find employment in the cities. The explanation of the movement is found partly in the higher earnings which might be realized, partly in the better conditions of living which might be found, partly in a very evident tendency exhibited by the Japanese to rise to the occupational and economic position they had enjoyed in their native land. In this way the large number who have engaged in agricultural pursuits or in city trades upon their arrival have been added to by those who

were leaving their employment in other industries. As a result of this movement the number of Japanese engaged in railroad and general construction work and in coal mining in all of the States save Utah has been decreasing, especially since restrictions were placed upon the immigration of laborers from Japan and Hawaii. Their places have been filled by an increasing number of European immigrants, as a rule at higher wages. Business having been in a more or less depressed condition throughout the West since the end of 1907, the partial substitution involved has not caused much difficulty. Moreover, it may be said that none of these industries, save the salmon canning, has been materially assisted by or has become dependent upon Japanese labor. In the salmon canneries more Chinese or more laborers of some other race than Japanese are desired. With the beetsugar industry in several States and certain other agricultural industries in California it is different, for the farmers in many localities have for years relied upon Asiatic labor until a situation has developed in which the substitution of other races will involve inconvenience and will require radical changes in order to make the necessary readjustment.

CHAPTER IV.

JAPANESE IN AGRICULTURE.

AGRICULTURAL LABORERS."

The farms of the Western States furnish employment during the summer months to more than 40 per cent of their Japanese population. The number so employed in California during the summer months of 1909 was probably 30,000, in Washington 3,000, Colorado 3,000, Oregon 1,000, Idaho between 800 and 1,000, Utah 1,025, and Montana 700 or 800. Comparatively few are employed in the other States of the western division, in Texas, and in Florida. Of these, perhaps 6,000 are farmers (chiefly tenants), the others farm laborers.

The work performed by Japanese farm hands is practically all connected with the more intensive crops, such as sugar beets, grapes, deciduous and citrus fruits, berries, vegetables, and hops, which require much hand labor during certain seasons. They also engage in clearing land in some localities. Japanese are rarely employed on ranches devoted to general farming. The most important branch of agriculture as regards Japanese laborers is the raising of sugar beets, in which between 10,000 and 11,000 out of a total of 25,500 persons in the industry as a whole are employed during the busiest season. The great majority of the Japanese farm laborers in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and Utah are working in the beet fields of those States during the busy season, and a part of those in Washington, Oregon, and California are also similarly employed. In Washington and Oregon, however, the great majority of the Japanese farm laborers are employed in berry patches and truck gardens and very few find employment in fruit orchards. In California the Japanese are extensively employed in nearly all districts, raising vegetables, berries, citrus and deciduous fruits, nuts, etc. The range of their work, as well as their number, in California is much greater than in the other States.

• The investigation of immigrant agricultural labor embraced studies of the beet-sugar industry of all of the Western States, the hop industry in Oregon and California, and intensive farming in several localities in California. The reports submitted relating to these give much more detail concerning Japanese agricultural labor than is here presented. The reports are as follows: "Immigrant labor in the beet-sugar industry in the Western States; ""Immigrant labor in the hop industry of California and Oregon; ""Immigrant labor in the agricultural and allied industries of California;” “Immigrant farming on the reclaimed lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers; " "Immigrants in Fresno County, Cal.; " Immigrant labor in the deciduous-fruit industry of the Vaca Valley; ""Immigrant labor in the garden-seed and deciduous-fruit industries of Santa Clara County;" "Immigrant labor in the orchards about Suisun; "Immigrant labor in the citrus-fruit industry; "Immigrant labor in the fruit industries of the Newcastle district; " "The celery industry of Orange County;" and "Immigrant labor in the Imperial Valley."

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »